Poll: GERD and Sleep Apnea

I think it's more likely due to loosening up of the esophageal sphincter that comes with age and weight gain.

John q, I agree dr. T is the best GI doc in the Bay Area.
He told me that I should worry more about my sleep apnea.
Not that I shouldn't worry about GERD. But, those were his words.

Hi All!
Just joined and glad to see this post is still going.

I was diagnosed with GERD first. I had no heartburn, no upper abdominal pain, no burping...at anytime. All I had was waking up in the middle of the night coughing and finding saliva in my mouth that I wasn't swallowing while asleep. I was sent to see a GI doc, who recommended an EGD (scope: 2005). They found I had gastritis, a small hiatal hernia, and signs of reflux. So was put on medicine, Nexium to start, then switched to Pepcid.

I did well on Pepcid until 2009, when my symptoms returned. Saw GI doc again, another scope, same results as before, but changed to Protonix 1x/day. I've had intermittent minor flareups of the reflux. In the fall of 2009, after seeing my GI doc, and reviewing symptoms I was having mostly at night, he recommended I see a pulmonary doc to get checked for Sleep Apnea. The pulmonary doc sent me for a sleep study (Jan. 2010). During the sleep study I was having hypopnea and apnea. My sats were in the low 70's. I started on bipap, and have been on it now over 4.5 years. I have been doing well on it. (I'll post my equipment and info on a later post).

I saw an ENT doc in the spring of 2012 for the 'lump in the throat', and he scoped my throat/pharynx and found it irritated: larynx, lower pharynx and nearby structures. From my reflux. Had me on brand Protonix (very expensive) 2x/day for 6 months which cleared it up.

I just had my 3rd EGD this past July, and they found gastritis, and a narrowing of my lower 1/3 of the esophagus (which they dilated), and I've been on generic Protonix 2x/day now since then until I see them in October for a recheck.

The reason I'm posting all this is that I've been diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis. At this point, they do not know if my reflux is the cause of my PF....( GERD is one of the possible causes of PF.)
And the PF was found by accident! I had a routine chest xray in May of 2013, and my primary doc didn't call me so I assumed it was negative. When I went to see my pulmonary doc in October of 2013 for a sleep apnea check, he got a repeat chest xray, and also looked up the results of my xray in May. There was signs of fibrosis on both xrays! He was surprised, as my primary doc did not tell me anything. He's been following up with me, and I've started a workup for the PF this summer. My recent PFT's show about 70% lung function, and so far I'm doing well, trying to increase my exercise and lose weight.

So, if any of you are still having problems with your reflux, keep on top of it! Talk to your doctor! Don't ignore reflux and don't deal with a passive MD who tells you not to worry!!

Sorry this was so long!
Rose

^tmjTerri....keep an check on your issues with still having reflux with the cpap. See my post above.

Being on my bipap has not prevented me from further reflux problems. Sounds like some people on here are very lucky. Mine is still silent, no pain, no heartburn...but still have days where I wake up hoarse which is telling me my reflux was acting up while I was sleeping.

Interesting posts pro and con with the Nissan procedure. It's not been even suggested to me, but need to read up on it if that becomes a possible choice for me.